And, since this scarf was a "very easy" lace pattern, with only two repeats to keep track of, I though oh this will be a cinch and I will finish it tonight and won't I be so proud of myself.

Wrong.

See, I was under the false assumption that I'd learned something from that tank top I knitted. That lace one that came out *thisclose* to perfect ('cept for the too strangly straps and the too-shortness of the length BUT WHATEVER). I thought I'd learned how to keep my brain about me when I was knitting lace and not get all ginned up and off-pattern as I'm sometimes apt to do.

Because I have tried knitting this scarf THREE TIMES already and had to rip it back after finding my rows decreasing by 2 stitches after the first repeat.

WTF?

Where are these stitches going?

Why is this scarf arching me?

Anyway. I've decided that this pattern, for me, is a jerk. Because if I can't sit down and NOT DRINK MY G&T and then still not get this thing done properly in an evening, then it's getting put away until such time as my brain swells to the size of normal human girl proportions.

I will clarify that by saying that I will be converting yet another Tshirt into yet another piece of clothing that is not a Tshirt. I mean, obviously, since I just told you I was going to make a swimsuit cover-up.

You know what I mean.

Thankfully AIDS Walk is only about a week away, so I know I'll have some new Tshirts in the house to dispatch at will.

OH! And if you are of the generous nature and would like to sponsor me for AIDS Walk (this is the only thing I fundraise for, so don't worry I won't be back here every five seconds being, like, "Hey! Gimme money for whatever thing I'm doing right now!" because I won't. That shit bugs me, too.), feel free to hit the sidebar there to donate on my AIDS Walk page, or just click here and go on with your life. And, hey, also feel free to ignore this entire paragraph - I will still love you just as much.

And also, please don't take my experience with this scarf as any indication of how your own Summer Scarf will come out, because there are already photos in our pool of successfully started scarves that look super normal and lovely and that is because most people have the ability to knit a "very easy" lace scarf with only two repeats.

Yes, I just admitted to being incredibly inept. I think we all feel better with that out on the table. It's fine.

But, if you do attempt the scarf and you do have the same experience as I did, well, then we can hold hands and skip down the sidewalk together humming the theme song to Laverne and Shirley (Why L&S? Dunno.) knowing that at least we're not alone in our knitting inabilities. Sound good? I thought it would.

6 comments:

You're probably missing the YO that falls at the very end of the row - either the beginning of the row or the end of the row depending which way it's slanting. Just remember that the YO goes on the same side as the way the scarf is slanting.

So I had to rip my scarf out three times, too, because I would find myself with 18 stitches instead of 20. I am halfway done now, but it is NOT relaxing to have to count constantly, and I won't be doing even "simple" lace for a loooooong time after this! I am glad I am not the only one who can't count to 20.

Hmmmm...my plan is to knit the scarf but I'll be cautious about the count based on your experience and comments left. I suspect it's the YO thing that throws the count off. I had trouble on my last knitting project due to those pesky YOs.

I clicked on the link to the pretty yarn and about fell out when I saw it was $43.50 a skein. I'm going to use a cheaper bamboo version found at Jo-Ann's.

I feel your pain. I'm working on a Spidery tank, and have managed to screw up the first repeat (albeit, an 18 row repeat) somewhere. I decided to go ahead and see how bad it looks after the second repeat.

Have you seen the book called Pints and Purls? They are knits that you can knit while drinking and socializing.

Zarah - You could not have been more right. I went back to the scarf (this is round 4 WOO) with this instruction in mind (the YO is on the side in which the pattern slants) and have managed to work up about a foot of the scarf with no missing stitches.

SO THANK YOU! And I'll endeavor to finish the thing and post it here and give you all the credit for helping my brain swell to the size of a normal human girl's.

Kara - Yes. I need to get on that. I have a Tshirt all ready!

Alevin - I've found myself counting the stitches after every few rows, too. My indication that something has gone awry is when I get to the end of the row and go to K1 and WHOOPSY there's two stitches left. Then I backtrack and swear and redo the row. Fun times. And no, not relaxing.

Junie - Uh, yeah. Dunno what people are thinking with $40 yarn. I'm reusing some yarn in my stash.

AND I restarted this thing after 3 failed attempts and *so far* it looks fine. Just watch the YOs at the start and finish.

[2013 update: You can't comment as an anonymous person anymore. Too many douchebags were leaving bullshit SPAM comments and my inbox was getting flooded, but if you're here to comment in a real way like a real person, go to it.]

Look at you commenting, that's fun.

So, here's the thing with commenting, unless you have an email address associated with your own profile, your comment will still post, but I won't have an email address with which to reply to you personally.

Sucks, right?

Anyway, to remedy this, I usually come back to my posts and post replies in the comment field with you.

But, if you ever want to email me directly to talk about pumpkins or shoes or what it's like to spend a good part of your day Swiffering - shoot me an email to finnyknitsATgmailDOTcom.